Meringue Cookies

I bet with this recipe, you have all the ingredients in your kitchen. They are so easy to make, but at the same time they are slightly difficult.

For this recipe you will need egg whites, caster sugar and vanilla. That's it. Caster sugar is difficult to track down but you can make your own. Remember that blog about the food processor? Well I got to actually use it to make caster sugar.

The step by step:

Ingredients:

3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (sub with 1/4tsp lemon juice)
3/4 superfine or caster sugar
1/4 tsp  vanilla

Put rack in center. Preheat your oven to 200ºF. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

To make the caster sugar, place into a food processor for 30 to 60 seconds until it's finer than normal sugar, but not quite powder. This may take some practice.

Using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites, on low-medium, until they are foamy. Add cream of tartar (or lemon juice) then beat until soft peaks form.

Add sugar in little by little. About a quarter to half cup at a time. Mix until the egg whites and sugar no longer feel gritty between your fingers.

Boost the mixer medium-high speed and continue to mix the meringue until stiff peaks form. You can tell you have stiff peaks by turning off the mixer and looking at the end of the beaters. The peaks will stand straight up.

Using two spoons, a pastry bag or in my case, as ziploc bag, carefully start putting dollops of meringue about 1/2 inch apart across the cookie sheet.

Place in oven and bake for 90 minutes. Once they are finished, remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from baking sheet.

The meringue, if finished, should come right off the parchment sheets. The outsides will be hard and have a slight satin-y sheen to them while the insides will be soft, light and fluffy.

Summer Peach Panna Cotta

I had a craving for panna cotta, I also had some frozen peaches in my freezer. It was time to make panna cotta. But I didn't have all the ingredients. I didn't feel like making my own heavy cream for this recipe so I did some research to find out what would be a good substitute and potentially healthier for you.

So I trekked to the store and picked up the ingredients that I needed. Heavy cream is also ridiculously expensive.

Better alternatives are: Whole milk, sour cream, almond milk or Half and Half. I opted for half and half so it would still have that super creamy texture. I have made panna cotta with almond milk and it was good too.

What is panna cotta you ask? Well it basically translates to cooked cream.

How do I make it? Well...

What you'll need:


1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups half and half (Use the rest for your coffee)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or splenda)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup diced peaches*

1 tbsp honey

In a small bowl sprinkle gelatin over the milk and leave sit until gelatin is softened, which takes about 5 minutes.

Take a large sauce pan and combine the half and half with the sugar. Heat up until the sugar is dissolved. DO NOT BOIL. Add the vanilla.

Once you have a simmer going, whisk in the milk and gelatin. Keep whisking gently until all the gelatin has dissolved.

Remove from heat and mix in the peaches.

Carefully pour the mixture into small bowls or ramekins. Chill for 3 hours to over night.

To remove the panna cotta, take a bowl of hot water bigger than the dish and place the dish into it for up to 2 minutes. Run a knife gently along the edge. Remove from water and place a plate on top of the bowl, then flip. Tap on the bottom of the bowl to release.

Top with more peaches and drizzle honey. Then enjoy!

* Peaches can be fresh, frozen, canned. However make sure they are well drained and rinsed of syrup. You can also use the syrup from the peaches in place of the honey.

Pizza Burgers

Someone in my video game mentioned burgers, fries and milkshakes. It was nearing dinner time and I was starving already. Burgers sounded really good, but I also had a craving for pizza. So tonight for dinner, we had pizza burger.

Another friend in the same game seemed a little baffled by this.

Kent von Relven: ((...pizza...burgers...))
Satin Falcon: ((:)
Kent von Relven: ((It's possible to combine these two heavenly treats?))
Satin Falcon: ((mhmm

And here I am now posting the blog just so he can see exactly how such a creation is made.

ONWARD!

What you'll need:

2 lbs ground beef (I use 80/20)
2 tbsp Italian blend seasoning
8 oz pizza sauce or traditional pasta sauce, divided.
2 cups plain bread crumbs or Panko
1 egg

Combine all ingredients and half of the sauce, in a large bowl. Remove any rings, bracelets, watches or anything you don't want raw meat stuck to.

Mix well. If it's too wet add more bread crumbs, too dry add a bit more sauce.

Preheat your grill or stove top griddle until a drop of water just skitters across it. About 400ºF (204.5ºC). Also preheat your oven to 350ºF (176.5ºC)

Form your burgers into palm size patties and place on the grill. Cook for about 15-20 minutes until no pink remains on the edges. Flipping about half way through. You should have nice grill marks on both sides.

Place burgers into a oven safe dish and pour the rest of the sauce over the tops of the burgers and top with mozzarella cheese. Put into oven and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the internal temp reads 145ºF(62.5ºC)

Serve with favorite sides and enjoy!